The invention in this U.S. patent application relates to the field of biomedical simulation devices, and more specifically, to a patient simulator manikin for training for abdominal palpation examination.
While many different types of patient manikin training simulators are available in today's market, they are generally limited by having one or more static or single-function organs or body elements for simulating a single, specific subject condition for medical students, nurses and paramedics to train on. A patient manikin simulator called “SimMan”, which is commercially available from Laerdal Medical AS, Wappingers Falls, N.Y., enables a training host to simulate a specific abdominal ailment, but is unable to replicate other abdominal disorders, such as appendicitis, ectopic pregnancy, and cancer of the abdomen. Commercially marketed simulators currently available are purely static and require a manual change to reconfigure the abdomen contents to simulate a different disorder. For example, to simulate a distended bladder, the “healthy” bladder model would be removed from the torso and replaced with a “distended” version. To simulate a different condition or a dynamically changing condition, different abdominal organ models or body elements must be manually interchanged into the manikin abdominal cavity.
In order for trainees to gain a wide range of experience training on a patient manikin simulator, it is deemed desirable to provide a patient manikin simulator that can simulate a wide range of different or dynamically changing medical conditions, without having to manually interchange abdominal organ models or body elements.